Act of Independence of the Mexican Empire (Acta de Independencia del Imperio Mexicano)

These three objects tell a story of Mexico’s early nineteenth-century Creole patriotism. The Mexican independence movement was fueled by Creoles, who were often denied a voice in colonial government. The 1821 Act of Independence formalized the independence that had been declared in 1810 and was signed by many Creole aristocrats, among them Don José María Gómez de Cervantes, whose portrait is on view nearby. New World figures like the Virgin of Guadalupe, who miraculously appeared to the Indian Juan Diego in 1521, and Saint Felipe de Jesús, the first Mexican-born saint, became important nationalist symbols, supporting the idea that the independence of Mexico was divinely ordained.